The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1887-07-27
Replanting Corn.

Leu the reader tnlnk IL he ever knew
rcplant corn to do any good, more than
to make little fodder. If replanting
missing hills is done it cannot be until
sufficient time elapscs to give all of the
first planting chance to show itself,
and often it is three weeks from the time
of the first planting before the replanting
is done. Even two weeks difference in
the ages of different hills, gives the older
ones such a decided advantage in size
that the younger are soon shaded so as to
be deprived of their needed proportion
of light and air.
Unless the field is cultivated before the
replanting is done, the soil is apt to have
become hard, especially if heavy rains
have fallen, and the newly planted corn
does not have suitable seed bed. The
weeds will also have got started, and
before the replant is big enough to
cultivate they will get such a start as to
be hard to overcome.
Then in cultivating all through the
season, any one who has worked in corn
field knows how difficult it is to do good
.,ork when the hills vary in size. Guilt
vation, to be effective, must be adapted
to the height of the corn, as regards the
depth of working, nearness to the hills,
and character of tools.
Another point, and an important one,
is that this replant corn will not bear
grain to any great extent, because, in ad.
dition to the reasons already given why a
weak growth is induced, it will not prop
erly and sufficiently fertilized with pollen
dust. The reader has often seen n single
stalk of corn growing by itself in an open
field, and has noticed that, no matter how
vigorous may have been the growth, the
attempt to produce grain resulted in a
cob on which were only few scattering
kernels. The reason of this is that of
the pollen dust produced in the tassel,
the male organs of the plant, not enough
of it falls on the silks, the female organs,
to fertilize the germ of kernel, which is
at the base of each flament of silk. There
is never grain of corn unless grain of
pollen dust, the fertilizing element, finds
its way into the mouth of each thread of
silk, which is tube, and passes down
into this to the germ lying at the base
and on the cob, and there under the mys-
terry of the vital force starts this germ
into life and development. When, there
fore, stalk of corn stands by itself, the
winds carry large part of the pollen out
of the reach of the silks, and the germs
fail to become fertilized. When in field
of other stalks the breeze which carries
its own dust away, brings that of others
to it. These facts also show how it is
that different kinds of corn so readily
mix when growing alongside.
~ Now, if one-fourth of the hills scat
tered through the fields are two weeks
later than the other three fourths, we sec
that these late hills will not be ready to
receive the pollen as it falls from TIE tas-
sells of the older stalks. When they are
ready the older and more numerous tas-
sells will have shed all of their pollen and
these must depend on the few scattered
stalks for fertilization. And these are
so surrounded by the other stalks which
serve as a wind break, that the chances
are quite limited that they arc sufficiently
polleniZed, and all they amount to is a
| little fodder This is not what the re-
planting is for usually, hence we advise,
if replanting is necessary, that the field
| be given a shallow plowing or a good
cultivation and narrowing and then re-
| planted as a whole. The soil now being
in better mechanical condition and
warmer, the seed will germinate quickly
and grow rapidly. The only loss will be
the time taken in the first planting, and
the seed, and one very considerable gain
will be the extra culture given the land
and the consequent destruction ofmillions
of weeds that have germinated. Col
mans Rural World.